Talking ‘Tip Toe’ with Russell T. Davies: The Writer Behind Doctor Who Takes on Queer Tension, Social Anxiety and Modern Britain

Tip Toe is a five-part STARZ drama about neighbors in Manchester, UK whose relationship spirals into lies, violence, and escalating social tension. It centers on Leo, a gay bar owner, and Clive, his neighboring electrician. It mines the gradual eradication of the hard-won rights of the LGBTQ+ communities amid the social and economic anxieties prevalent in the current global political landscape.

The series stars Alan Cumming as Leo and David Morrissey as Clive, with support from Pooky Quesnel, Jackson Connor, Joseph Evans, Elizabeth Berrington, Iz Hesketh, Shakeel Kimotho, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo, Paul Rhys, Charlie Condou, and Denise Welch.

Tip Toe is created by acclaimed TV writer Russell T. Davies known for Doctor Who, Queer as Folk, Torchwood, Casanova, and It’s a Sin. Davies spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about his vision for his project.

What is the significance of the title Tip Toe?

It’s laid bare by the character Melba, played by Paul Rhys, to spell out the agenda of the whole show. He’s an aging ex-drag performer who still wears a bit of eyeshadow and a bit of lipstick. And he says, “I used to walk into a room and go, ta-da! Now, I tiptoe, just in case. And that’s the world we’re heading into.”

The very last line of this drama is, “I think we’re heading for something bigger.” That was actually said to me by a drag queen on Canal Street in Manchester.

I was describing the show and I was testing him before I’d written it. I was saying, “What do you think? Where do you think we’re heading?” And this drag queen who just won a competition said, “I think we’re heading for something big. I think there’s something in the air.”

Melba (Paul Rhys) and Leo (Alan Cumming) Photo courtesy of STARZ

Obviously I’m not used to tip toeing. I’m six foot six and loud. I’ve been on television too much and I clomp about in very big boots. So I’m not about to tip toe.

But as a rule, particularly in these arguments and of the wildfire of debate that we’re in at the moment, I think of our trans brothers and sisters who are genuinely living in fear and their visibility becomes an arrow pointing towards them. I have had a trans couple come up to me at an autograph signing and say, “We are terrified.”

And you sit there asking, “This is 2026. We’re in the West in 2026. How is this even possible?”

My life is very lucky. I’ve worked hard for this position. But to be a trans person in this day and age is terrifying. What on earth is happening to the world?

What else are saying about the world in Tip Toe, not just about the LGBTIQ+ community?

The fear behind it is, that all our lives we have fought for equality, visibility and representation. And that’s being threatened.

I went to the Human Rights Campaign dinner the other night, which was magnificent. I felt a really cold chill down my spine because I thought I’ve been listening to these speeches for 45 years now, and it’s getting worse. That’s where this is coming from.

The problem is that our visibility, equality, and representation made us so visible that now we’re an easy target. I’m not suggesting for one second that we back down on that visibility, because when you’re talking about an easy target, your fears should be looking at the person with the gun, not the person who’s about to be shot down.

The person who needs fixing, changing, educating and loving into a better state of mind is the person with the gun. So how we do that in an age where this online voice is being accelerated and exaggerated into violence?

During the transmission of Tip Toe, during those five weeks in Britain, we saw two men in a bar in Tucson, Arizona being shot. We celebrated the one year anniversary in Manchester of two Jewish men being killed at a synagogue.

That’s what’s happening. We had riots during transmission in Southampton, Belfast and around Britain. Riots of white men complaining that the police were racist. That’s how insanely out of control it is. So it is heating up. And crucially, it’s passing from the online world into the real world.

There are people wanting that to happen. And not just in America, that we have extreme politicians in Britain willing this all at the same time.

Russell T Davies

Talk about the relationship between Leo and Clive.

Leo is at a weird stage of his life. On one hand, he’s loud and proud. And he’s certain of himself. On another level, he doesn’t really know where he fits in. He’s in between generations.

Clive is similarly uncertain about his life and he repeats conspiracy theories he’s read on line.

Leo is also Clive’s neighbour. And whoever you live next door to, you’re in a relationship with in some shape or form because you can hear each other through the walls. Leo’s not going to move, so he’s got to try and make peace with Clive somehow. I think there’s an arrogance behind that.

Leo is absolutely arrogant. In the final episode on the season, he calls the Goss family next door, the Flintstones. He makes the crucial mistake of thinking he’s better than them. He thinks he’s cleverer than the people around him. And he gets chastized by his friends for this.

With Clive, it’s impossible to talk about him without talking about Leo, because the whole show is a two-hander.

They’re constantly in balance. One of the crucial things with Clive, is his lack of money. When we get this weaponization of money in society, everything I’m talking about is this fear of the online voice becoming a violence.

Throughout history, in times of poverty, when the economy collapses, these populist figures arise in society – figures outside the law, outside the church, outside the government, but independently rich and powerful.

Elon Musk-type figures arise in society, time and time again. Societies we might have thought of as homophobic in the past were not actually homophobic. But in times of economic crisis, these populist figures are the ones they turn to.

We’re dangerously on the edge of economic collapse now. We have been ever since 2008. We’re simply waiting for the next 2008. And nothing I can see happening is being prevented.

That’s what creates men like Clive who are economically and socially powerless. In the very last episode of Tip Toe, Clive mentions the Breathing Space Scheme which helps people who can’t pay the mortgage.

Clive is trapped in a loveless marriage with his wife Marie (Pooky Quesnel) and has been for the past six years. Neither can afford to move out so they tolerate each other until their sons possibly move out. Men like Clive are sinking. That’s where his anger comes from. And he projects it onto Leo.

His son George (Jackson Connor) is sixteen and gay and is slowly coming out of the closet. His other son Saul (Joseph Evans) is twenty-two, straight, and a popular Onlyfans model.

George (Connor Jackson) and Zee (Iz Hesketh) Photo by STARZ

Describe your writing process

I don’t write plot outlines or use index cards and character breakdowns.

I never do that thing with index cards. I never put anything on a wall. I just sit and write. I have it all in my head.

I literally spend all day writing. It’s all planned in my head. If I got run over by a bus, there’d be no record of anything that happens in any episode. It’s just the way I work. I don’t work in a writers’ room. I don’t work with whiteboards.

by Staff Writer

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